“Just finish getting everything ready,” Shay shouted. “We’ll hit the lake at dawn with the drones and figure out possible dives after that. If we’re lucky, maybe we won’t have to dive at all.”
One of the team members, an engineer named Bill, rushed over to her. “The drones are almost ready to go, but we’re having some trouble with the interface. There’s a lot of interference. Your report didn’t say anything about broad EM frequency interference up here. Do you think that’s a side effect of the magical defenses?”
Shay frowned.
You guys don’t see the obvious, do you?
Daniel had secured the necessary permissions from the Austrian government and provided her with a skilled team of engineers and divers, not to mention all the best equipment, but it was painfully obvious that these people were not tomb raiders.
Even though they weren’t aware of the incident at the airport, they should have been more suspicious.
It wasn’t as if they didn’t have any guns. Everyone possessed at least some proficiency with a firearm, and they had a weapons locker in one of the cavernous green tents. Unfortunately, shooting a gun and having the paranoid instincts honed by tombs raids were separate things.
The reality was that if they had been tomb raiders they would have realized the immediate implications of the interference, and that it wasn’t some spell messing with their equipment.
Someone’s jamming us. If they’re jamming us, they’re going to be coming at us soon.
The surrounding pines and other trees grew thickly enough to hide a small army.
Shay sucked in a breath. She could tell everyone to arm up, and they could try and repel an attack, but the men’s lack of tactical experience would make an already-chaotic situation disastrous.
No, she needed to handle this problem herself.
Shit. As far as Daniel’s concerned I’m Professor Shay Carson, a slightly eccentric academic. I’m lucky he hasn’t seen through my fake identity already. If I start killing people he’ll figure out who I really am, and that won’t end well for Peyton or me. It’s not like I can take on the CIA.
Shay glanced at her tent. She’d brought a few of her toys, even if the expedition members and the CIA agent didn’t know about them.
“Let’s pack it in for the night,” she announced. “I want everyone bright-eyed tomorrow morning. Maybe by then, the interference will have cleared.” She clapped. “And I want us to find ourselves some gold.”
The men laughed.
So the enemy is probably jamming us and watching us. The smart play would be to let us go to sleep, wait an hour or so, and then ambush us.
Shay retreated to her tent and pushed in, closing the flap behind her. She dug through several biometrically-sealed metal boxes until she found a small one with a DNA lock. She pressed her thumb to the plate and hissed at the familiar burn. The lock popped open, and she opened the lid.
Her three adamantine knives lay inside, nestled atop her folded tactical harness and a 9mm with a few magazines.
If they ask about this, I’ll just claim the knives are valuable artifacts I dug up a long time ago, and I always want to make sure I can protect them.
Shay slipped on the harness and loaded a mag into the pistol before holstering it. She sheathed the knives, then slid under the open sleeping bag on her cot. Now it was time to wait.
Thirty minutes later, when chatter had drifted to silence and everyone was in their tents, Shay carefully and slowly unzipped the front of her tent and crept out into the darkness.
The lights had all been killed, and their only real defense was the pop-up chain-link fence they’d deployed. The intent wasn’t to stop people, but rather the wildlife that might wander in.
Shay crept through the darkness, resisting a snicker. It wasn’t even like she was doing anything wrong. Taking out the people who were trying to attack her and her team was simple self-defense, but she was skulking through the darkness like some scumbag criminal.
She just couldn’t tip her hand to Daniel. It was too much of a risk to her and everyone she cared about.
This is why superheroes have secret identities, but am I a superhero or a supervillain?
The tomb raider smirked as she made her way to the fence and vaulted over it without trouble. A stray flash of green caught her eye.
Sloppy, assholes. Really, sloppy.
Shay rushed toward the forest, keeping low to the ground until she hit the tree line. She was grateful there wasn’t a full moon. Some nearby branches crunched, the quiet sound almost a scream in the still night.
The shadowy forms of a half-dozen men emerged from the tree line. All wore night-vision goggles and held rifles.
These guys definitely mean business.
The tomb raider had already moved well to their side in an attempt to flank them, saving her from being spotted right away. She hurried until she was behind the men. The earlier fight at the airport must have convinced them that she wasn’t a simple college professor, which would explain the jamming and night assault.
The men raised their rifles and opened fire, their muzzle flashes lighting up the night. The tomb raider sprinted behind them. She’d planned to do this quietly, but since they’d already fired, she might as well take the easy path.
Shay pulled out her 9mm and blasted toward each muzzle flash. Three men went down with screams. She rushed toward a nearby tree, and a counterattack by one of the men blasted bark into the air. She returned fire, downing another man.
The two surviving night raiders rushed toward Shay, one laying down suppression fire as the other tried to flank her. She put two quick rounds into the first man, but the final man flanked her just in time to exchange
